Policy Press

Social Work and Community Development

Policy Press is committed to ‘making a difference’ in social work and community development, with a list that aims to take forward academic thinking, and raise challenging questions for policy and practice.

Showing 1-12 of 252 items.

Why Social Work is Important

Identity, Role and Practice

This book demonstrates that all societies require a social work presence. It symbolises the importance of a community-near professional input to human flourishing and the development of social capital. It challenges economic and political trends that corrode deeply-held human and social values.

Policy Press

Critical Social Work with Children and Families

Theory, Context and Practice

This fully-updated, accessible textbook considers the theory and practice of critical social work in addressing inequality and social injustice. It is essential reading for students, educators and practitioners of child and family social work.

Policy Press

Secrets and Silence

Uncovering the Legacy of the Cleveland Child Sexual Abuse Case

The Cleveland child sexual abuse scandal was not the scandal we thought. Beatrix Campbell shows how medical evidence of childhood rape identified by pioneering paediatricians was deemed credible but ‘dangerous’. This secret has framed policy making and public opinion and has had consequences for children, professionals, justice and the state.

Policy Press

The Future of Children’s Care

Critical Perspectives on Children’s Services Reform

Bringing together a range of perspectives from practice, lived experience and academia, this is an accessible and timely guide to children’s services reform. Critically considering the impact of the MacAlister Review, the book highlights both the positive and negative aspects of reform, before setting out alternative policy and practice directions.

Policy Press

The Best Interests Assessor Practice Handbook

Second edition

Essential reading for Best Interests Assessor students and practitioners, this fully-updated handbook gives practical advice on the legal aspects, values and practice elements of the role. It takes account of the Mental Capacity Amendment Act 2019 and the new context for practice in the Approved Mental Capacity Professional role.

Policy Press

Understanding Mental Distress

Knowledge, Practice and Neoliberal Reform in Community Mental Health Services

This timely analysis sets out the full impacts of policy reform, austerity and marketisation on our country’s mental health services. Rooted in the experiences of service users and providers, it provides valuable perspectives on our evolving practical and organisational responses to mental distress.

Policy Press

Interprofessional Collaboration and Service User Participation

Analysing Meetings in Social Welfare

This book examines how interprofessional collaboration and service user participation are challenged in multi-agency meetings, demonstrating how collaborative and integrated welfare policy is contingent on the interactional practices of professionals and service users and providing examples of best practice.

Policy Press

Welfare and Punishment

From Thatcherism to Austerity

From Margaret Thatcher’s first government to austerity politics, Ian Cummins traces changing attitudes to imprisonment and the social state. With fresh insights and critical thinking, he demonstrates how increasingly punitive approaches to crime and welfare have shaped the neoliberal economy and created stigma around those living in poverty.

Bristol Uni Press

Sharing Milk

Intimacy, Materiality and Bio-Communities of Practice

Using a bio-communities of practice framework, this thought-provoking empirical analysis explores the emotional and material dimensions of the growing phenomenon of milk sharing in the Global North and its implications for contemporary understandings of infant feeding in the US, providing new insights into a much-debated topic.

Bristol Uni Press

Embedding Young People's Participation in Health Services

New Approaches

Edited by Louca-Mai Brady

This book explores how young people’s participation can be inclusively and sustainably embedded into health services. Using rich case studies of participation in practice, Brady presents a new evidence-based framework to support policymakers and practitioners to embed young people’s participation more effectively in healthcare practice.

Policy Press

Social Media and Social Work

Implications and Opportunities for Practice

Using real-life examples, this book enables practitioners and students to consider the ethics and assess the impact of social media on their professional conduct, and their ability to maintain public confidence.

Policy Press

The Approved Mental Health Professional Practice Handbook

Approved Mental Health Professionals must possess and deploy a range of skills, knowledge and values in order to make ethically complex decisions on behalf of people with severe mental health difficulties. This invaluable handbook considers these challenges and provides in-depth guidance on all key aspects of the role.

Policy Press